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What Britain’s bosses really think about Brexit

Departing the EU is not the only issue keeping CEOs up at night.

With a few notable exceptions, the leaders of Britain’s biggest businesses have generally been reticent to nail their personal colours to the mast when it comes to Brexit – at least in public.

After all, unless you’re actively trying to lobby one way or the other, why take the risk of alienating voters (i.e. customers and colleagues) on either side of the divide?

It can be hard to tell, therefore, what they’re really thinking. That’s why, as part of our annual Britain’s Most Admired Companies survey, Echo Research asked 56 chairs and CEOs representing a variety of FTSE 250 businesses what keeps them up at night, on the proviso that we’d keep it anonymous.

Unsurprisingly, Brexit – in particular the UK’s lack of preparation ahead of the March 29 deadline – is the primary cause of C-suite insomnia, with 37 per cent listing it. A further 19 per cent said that political uncertainty and instability was leaving them restless (though in the context of recent events, that’s arguably the same thing).

Read more here.

What CEOs are reading

Last month I wrote about the ‘loveliness’ of leadership aspired to by Adam Smith (1723-1790), the founding father of free market capitalism. Lo and behold, this month we not only have a brilliant book about the man on our list (Adam Smith – What He Thought And Why It Matters by Jesse Norman), but also we’ve been besotted in actual, real life, by a ‘lovely leader’ in the Smithian mould – England manager Gareth Southgate.

He may not have brought football home this time, but he has at least changed the culture of football management today, tomorrow and for a long time to come.


SUPERMINDS: THE SURPRISING POWER OF PEOPLE AND COMPUTERS THINKING TOGETHER

Thomas W Malone

The founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence shows how groups of people working together in superminds – like hierarchies, markets, democracies, and communities – have been responsible for almost all human achievements in business, government, science, and beyond.

Read more here.